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☄️ NASA JPL Small-Body Database Scraper

🚀 Pull asteroid and comet science data in seconds. Get full names, SPK-IDs, diameters, albedos, rotation periods, spectral types and a complete set of orbital elements straight from NASA/JPL.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-06-05 · 📊 31 fields per record · 1.5M+ known small bodies reachable · Asteroids and comets

The NASA/JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB) is the reference catalogue for asteroids and comets in the Solar System, maintained by the Solar System Dynamics group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This Actor reads the official keyless SBDB API and returns clean, structured records combining physical parameters (magnitude, diameter, albedo, rotation period, spectral type) with full orbital elements (semi-major axis, eccentricity, inclination, node, argument of perihelion, mean anomaly, period) plus MOID and orbit class.

You can either look up a specific list of objects by number, name or SPK-ID, or browse the catalogue by kind to list many bodies at once. Every record links back to its source on the SBDB API.

📋 What the NASA JPL Small-Body Database Scraper does

This Actor turns the SBDB API into a tidy table of asteroid and comet records. For each object it collects identification (full name, short name, designation, SPK-ID, kind, orbit class, NEO and PHA flags), physical parameters (absolute magnitude H, slope G, diameter, albedo, rotation period, spectral type) and orbital elements (a, e, i, node, argument of perihelion, mean anomaly, perihelion and aphelion distance, orbital period), together with Earth and Jupiter MOID and observation arc dates.

Two modes are available. Provide a list of designations to fetch specific bodies one by one with the richest physical data, or leave the list empty and browse the catalogue by kind to list many asteroids or comets quickly.

🎬 Full Demo (🚧 Coming soon)

⚙️ Input

Example 1, look up specific bodies:

{
"designations":["433","1","99942","101955","2","4","16","21","243"],
"maxItems":10
}

Example 2, browse many asteroids:

{
"designations":[],
"browseKind":"a",
"maxItems":50
}

⚠️ Good to Know: the lookup mode returns the most complete physical data per object. The browse mode is faster for large lists but some physical fields can be empty when JPL has not measured them for that body.

📊 Output

Sample records:

{
"fullName":"433 Eros (A898 PA)",
"shortName":"433 Eros",
"designation":"433",
"spkId":"20000433",
"kind":"an",
"orbitClass":"Amor",
"orbitClassCode":"AMO",
"neo":true,
"pha":false,
"absoluteMagnitude":10.39,
"magnitudeSlope":0.46,
"diameterKm":16.84,
"albedo":0.25,
"rotationPeriodHours":5.27,
"spectralType":"S",
"semiMajorAxisAu":1.46,
"eccentricity":0.223,
"inclinationDeg":10.8,
"ascendingNodeDeg":304,
"argPerihelionDeg":179,
"meanAnomalyDeg":311,
"perihelionDistAu":1.13,
"aphelionDistAu":1.78,
"orbitalPeriodDays":643,
"moidAu":0.148,
"moidJupiterAu":3.29,
"epoch":"2461000.5",
"firstObs":"1893-10-29",
"lastObs":"2021-05-13",
"sourceUrl":"https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.api?sstr=433&phys-par=true",
"scrapedAt":"2026-06-05T15:54:59.626Z",
"error":null
}

{
"fullName":"1 Ceres (A801 AA)",
"shortName":"1 Ceres",
"designation":"1",
"spkId":"20000001",
"kind":"an",
"orbitClass":"Main-belt Asteroid",
"orbitClassCode":"MBA",
"neo":false,
"pha":false,
"absoluteMagnitude":3.35,
"diameterKm":939.4,
"albedo":0.09,
"rotationPeriodHours":9.07417,
"spectralType":"C",
"semiMajorAxisAu":2.77,
"eccentricity":0.0796,
"inclinationDeg":10.59,
"moidAu":1.58,
"moidJupiterAu":2.1,
"sourceUrl":"https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.api?sstr=1&phys-par=true",
"scrapedAt":"2026-06-05T15:54:59.700Z",
"error":null
}

{
"fullName":"99942 Apophis (2004 MN4)",
"shortName":"99942 Apophis",
"designation":"99942",
"spkId":"20099942",
"kind":"an",
"orbitClass":"Aten",
"orbitClassCode":"ATE",
"neo":true,
"pha":true,
"absoluteMagnitude":19.09,
"diameterKm":0.34,
"albedo":0.35,
"rotationPeriodHours":30.56,
"spectralType":"Sq",
"semiMajorAxisAu":0.922,
"eccentricity":0.191,
"inclinationDeg":3.34,
"moidAu":0.000361,
"sourceUrl":"https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.api?sstr=99942&phys-par=true",
"scrapedAt":"2026-06-05T15:54:59.820Z",
"error":null
}

✨ Why choose this Actor

• Reads the official NASA/JPL SBDB API directly, no third party data sources.
• Combines physical and orbital parameters in a single flat record.
• Two modes, precise lookup or wide catalogue browse.
• Every record carries a source link back to JPL for verification.
• No API key and no account with JPL required.

📈 How it compares to alternatives

🚀 How to use

1. Sign up for a free Apify account using this link.
2. Open the NASA JPL Small-Body Database Scraper.
3. Enter a list of designations, or leave it empty and pick a browse kind.
4. Set how many records you want and start the run.
5. Collect your structured asteroid and comet records when the run finishes.

💼 Business use cases

🛰 Mission and target planning

📊 Research datasets

🎓 Education and outreach

🤖 Data products

🔌 Automating NASA JPL Small-Body Database Scraper

Connect runs to Make, Zapier, Slack, Airbyte, GitHub Actions or Google Drive through the Apify API and integrations. Schedule recurring runs to keep your catalogue fresh, or trigger a run whenever a new target list lands in your pipeline.

🌟 Beyond business use cases

• Research: assemble custom asteroid and comet samples for papers and simulations.
• Personal: track the orbit and properties of your favourite near-Earth objects.
• Non-profit: support science clubs and outreach with real Solar System data.
• Experimentation: prototype orbital models and visualisations with clean inputs.

🤖 Ask an AI assistant

Paste your results into ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Copilot and ask it to cluster bodies by spectral type, rank near-Earth objects by MOID, or explain the orbit class of any object.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Is this affiliated with NASA or JPL? No. It is an independent tool that reads the public SBDB API. All data belongs to NASA/JPL.

Do I need an API key? No. The SBDB API is keyless and free to query.

How many objects can I fetch? The SBDB catalogue holds more than 1.5 million known small bodies. Free runs are capped at 10 records, paid runs go up to 1,000,000.

What is the difference between the two modes? Lookup mode fetches each object individually with the fullest physical data. Browse mode lists many bodies of a chosen kind in one request.

Can I look up a comet? Yes. Use a comet designation in the list, or set the browse kind to comets.

What is an SPK-ID? A stable numeric identifier JPL assigns to each body, useful for joining datasets.

What does MOID mean? Minimum orbit intersection distance, the closest the two orbits come. The Earth MOID helps flag hazardous objects.

Why is a physical field sometimes empty? JPL only reports measured values. Diameter, albedo or rotation can be missing for poorly studied bodies.

Are the orbital elements current? They reflect the latest orbit solution JPL publishes for each object, with the solution epoch included.

Can I search by name? Yes. Names like "Eros" or "Bennu" work in the lookup list, alongside numbers and SPK-IDs.

🔌 Integrate with any app

Use the Apify API, webhooks and ready made integrations to push records into your warehouse, spreadsheet, notebook or notification channel.

🔗 Recommended Actors

• Solar System Bodies Scraper
• NASA Exoplanet Archive Scraper
• NOAA SWPC Space Weather Scraper
• OpenChargeMap Scraper

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection.

🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form

⚠️ Disclaimer: independent tool, not affiliated with NASA or JPL. Only publicly available data collected.